Animals
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Bizarro Earth

UK: Thousands of Crabs Die Along Thanet's Coast


This Is Kent, UK
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:57 UTC
Thousands of dead crabs and mysterious deposits of black sand have littered the Thanet coastline.

Environmental experts believe the cold weather is again to blame for the deaths of velvet swimming crabs, which have been found at Palm, Walpole and Westbrook Bays.

In January 2010, the dead bodies of 30,000 to 40,000 of the crabs - also known as devil crabs - came ashore.

Volunteer coastal warden, Tony Sykes said: "We suspect that climate change and warmer weather has lured the crabs towards the shoreline.

"They could also be attracted to these waters looking for kelp, to feed on.

"We believe the sudden temperature drop causes the crabs to suffer from hypothermia and die."
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Bizarro Earth

US: Thousands Of Fish Dead In Spruce Creek, Florida


WFTV
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:09 UTC
Volusia County -- Thousands of dead fish are floating in Volusia County Tuesday. They were all in Spruce Creek in Port Orange. The fish kill is unusual, according to people who live along the creek, because it's warm.

It's been a week since there were freezing temperatures, but there are fish lining the banks. Some said it's the worst kill they've ever seen; thousands of fish lined the twists and turns of Spruce Creek.

The sheer number of fish and the smell were both overwhelming.

"It was fun last night trying to sleep with the smell going on," said resident Sunny Morningstar.

"Even with your windows closed and everything?" WFTV reporter Jason Allen asked.

"Yes, yes," Morningstar said.

Buzzards and pelicans flocked to the site Tuesday and swarmed above the water. They filled trees and private boat docks and waited at the water's edge for an easy meal.

Kayakers on the creek told WFTV, that during their five-hour paddle, they'd seen fish around every bend and it appeared to be one of the most extensive kills they had seen.
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Bizarro Earth

Canada: Hundreds of Dead Fish 'A Natural Occurrence'

Shawn Jeffords
Toronto Sun
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:42 UTC
Sarnia, Ontario. - Hundreds of dead fish that washed up on shore in the north end of the St. Clair River is a natural occurrence and not the result of a chemical spill, a government officials say.

Ministry of Natural Resources spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski confirmed that both the MNR and environment ministry were alerted to a massive die-off of gizzard shad fish late last week.

"We think it's a natural occurrence," Kowalski said. "They died off as a result of temperature shock because we had that really warm weekend ... and then it quickly cooled off again."

Kowalski said such die-offs are not unusual but it typically happens in the spring.

Only one species was affected, further supporting the idea it was a natural occurrence, she said.

"There was nothing to indicate that it was man-made."
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Fish

U.S.: Maryland Fish Kill Caused By 'Cold Stress'


WBAL TV
Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:54 UTC

The Maryland Department of the Environment said that tens of thousands of small fish have died in the Chesapeake Bay due to the stress of the cold water.

MDE spokeswoman Dawn Stolzfus said reports of a fish kill started coming in last week from Calvert County and Kent Island.
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Fish

Brazil: 100 tons of dead fish wash up on shore


Paraná Online
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:39 UTC
Brazil fish
© Parana OnlineFishermen have found at least 100 tonnes, mainly sardines.
A survey conducted by the Federation of Fishermen's Colony of Paraná, Paranaguá on the coast of the state, indicates that at least 100 tons of fish
(sardine, croaker and catfish) have turned up dead since last Thursday off the coast of Parana.

On Sunday, representatives from the Environmental Institute of Paraná (IAP), the Secretary of State for the Environment and Water Resources (SEMA),
took samples to verify the reason for the deaths. The report will be released today.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Woman Reports Dozens of Dead Birds in Her Yard

Lauren Adams
WPSD
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:17 UTC

Gilbertsville, Kentucky - Near her car, a dead bird. A quick walk to her mailbox, another. Scattered across her front yard, a local woman discovered dozens of dead birds.

"I've never seen anything like it. Never," Sandy said of the discovery.

Sandy, who asked we not share her last name, first noticed the birds several days ago but cleaned them up, not thinking twice.

"I have outdoor pets and just assumed they were bringing them from around the neighborhood."

But when she noticed more birds Monday morning, she panicked, "I had just seen the story on the news about the birds in Arkansas and I was scared."

In fact, 3,000 blackbirds seemed to fall from the sky there- starting last Friday. Autopsies have since ruled out poisoning. One top biologist from Cornell University said the birds were "....probably asleep in a single tree when a washing machine-type thunderstorm sucked them up into the air, disoriented them, and even fatally soaked and chilled them."
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Question

New Zealand: Hundreds of Snapper Wash Up on Beaches

Rob Kidd
Waikato Times
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:17 UTC
Australasian snapper
© Fir0002/WikipediaAustralasian snapper

Hundreds of dead snapper have washed up on Coromandel beaches, leaving holidaymakers perplexed.

People at Little Bay and Waikawau Bay, on the north-east of the peninsula, were stunned when children came out of the sea with armfuls of the fish and within minutes the shore was littered with them.

Charlotte Pearsall, whose family have lived at Little Bay for the last 30 years, said she had never seen anything like it.

''It was so surreal,'' she said. ''It's such an incredible waste - it could've fed the whole northern tip of the Coromandel.''

People with binoculars said the snapper stretched as far as they could see and boaties reported ''a carpet of floating fish further out to sea all along the coast''.

''We initially thought 'woohoo a free feed' but they had really cloudy eyes and you could see the birds had been at them. Some of them had no eyes,'' Pearsall said.

Her parents called the Department of Conservation and were told it was most likely the fish had starved due to weather conditions, but Pearsall did not think that was the case as many of the fish looked big and healthy.
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Arrow Down

US Sees Massive Drop in Bumblebees: Study


The Raw Story
Mon, 03 Jan 2011 23:28 UTC
bumblebee
© AFP
Weakened by inbreeding and disease, bumble bees have died off at an astonishing rate over the past 20 years, with some US populations diving more than 90 percent, according to a new study.

The findings are of concern because bees play a crucial role in pollinating crops such as tomatoes, peppers and berries, said the findings of a three-year study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Similar declines have also been seen in Europe and Asia, said Sydney Cameron, of the Department of Entomology and Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois, the main author of the study.

"The decline of bumble bees in the US is associated with two things we were able to study: the pathogen Nosema bombi and a decline in genetic diversity. But we are not saying Nosema is the cause. We don't know," said Cameron. "It's just an association. There may be other causes."

He added that the decline is "huge and recent," having taken place in the last two decades.
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Bizarro Earth

Japan Is on High Alert as a Virus Infiltrates Bird-Heavy Regions

Donald G. McNeil Jr.
New York Times
Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:35 UTC
Japan Bird Sanctuary
© Kyodo/Reuters
Japanese bird sanctuaries, poultry farms and zoos went on high alert last month after several species of migratory birds in different regions were found dead of what appeared to be H5N1 avian influenza.

The virus frightened flu specialists when it resurfaced in Hong Kong in 2003 and quickly spread throughout Asia and along bird migratory routes to Europe and Africa. It has not mutated to spread among humans, though it still kills them occasionally - Egypt reported its 38th death last month.

According to articles in the Japanese press gathered by ProMED, which monitors disease outbreaks, a hooded crane was found dead of H5N1 on the Izumi Plain in Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Japan. The plain is Japan's largest wild crane wintering site, and the prefecture is the nation's top poultry-raising area.
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Alarm Clock

US: Hundreds of dead blackbirds found in Louisiana

Russell Jones
WBRZ.com
Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:18 UTC
dead birds
© Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
Labarre - Around 500 dead blackbirds and starlings have been found in Pointe Coupee Parish, according to state wildlife officials. The birds were spotted lying in roads and ditches near Labarre Elementary School. The community is between Morganza and New Roads on Highway 10.

Scientists from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries have been sent out to collect samples, which will be sent for testing to the University of Georgia and National Wildlife Center in Wisconsin.

This comes after about 5,000 blackbirds and swallows were found dead around Beebe, Ark. on New Year's Eve. Dr. Jim LaCour with LDWF said he's not sure the two incidents are connected.

"It's not common, (but) we do see a few die-offs for various reasons," said LaCour. "Yes, we need to look into it, we need to be a little alarmed, but it's not out of the scope of things to have a die-off."
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